The magnetic stripe of a magnetic stripe bankcard may read by a magnetic read head of a card reader, for example, of an automated teller machine (ATM) to enable the cardholder to perform an ATM transaction. The card reader captures the cardholder's account and related information recorded on the magnetic stripe, which may be sent to a host processor coupled to the ATM. The host processor may use such information to route the transaction to the cardholder's bank. An ATM keypad may let the cardholder enter a personal identification number (PIN) and information about the transaction which the cardholder wishes to perform.
In addition, magnetic stripe card readers may be deployed to control access to areas, such as ATM lobbies or vestibules, that are provided with doors secured by electric locks. Such electric door locks may be unlocked, for example, by inserting or swiping a properly encoded magnetic stripe card at the card reader. Such deployments are referred to herein as “access control card readers” (ACCRs). If the proper credentials are encoded on the magnetic stripe, a signal may be sent to the electric door lock to unlock the door and admit the cardholder.
In recent years, huge economic losses have been incurred as a result of the theft and fraudulent use by criminals of cardholders' credentials recorded on the magnetic stripe of their bankcards. One way in which such theft occurs is a criminal practice referred to as “skimming” of bankcard information when a magnetic stripe bankcard is used by a cardholder, for example, in an otherwise legitimate transaction at an ATM or for access at an ACCR of an ATM vestibule or lobby.
A major problem of skimming involves criminals putting a device with a skimming read head, such as an overlay, over a card slot of an ATM or ACCR which reads the magnetic stripe as the cardholder unknowingly passes his or her bankcard through the card slot to be read by the internal read head of the ATM or ACCR. The skimming read head reads the same bankcard information that is read by the ATM or ACCR read head and records or sends the information to the criminals.
Skimming overlays may also include a keypad overlay that matches up with buttons on the legitimate keypad beneath the overlay and records and sends the cardholders' PINs to the criminals. Regardless of the skimming technique used, it is important to criminal skimmers to make sure that the device at which their skimming activity occurs, such as an ATM or ACCR, continues to work normally so that cardholders are unaware that their bankcards are being illegally recorded.
There is a present need for devices and methods that avoid exposing a cardholder's account information to potential theft by skimmers when the cardholder uses his or her magnetic stripe card at an ATM in a financial transaction or at an ACCR to access a locked premises, such as a bank branch or an ATM vestibule or lobby.